How, not what

“One of the most important things for me is to think not so much about ‘what’ I play as ‘how’ I play it. Then I’m in line with what goes on in the music

If you have a drum part that doesn’t work, you think, ‘I should place that snare hit somewhere else’, or ‘I should do more with the bass drum’, or ‘I should have a different pattern on the ride cymbal.’

"That is all the ‘what’. The ‘how’ would be, ‘Maybe it’s too heavy and that’s why it doesn’t work. Maybe I should play it more jazzy?’ I don’t fool around with the placement of the snare; I just pull back dynamic-wise and let the ride cymbal be the main instrument on this groove. Maybe you don’t have to come up with a different vocabulary or study more styles; maybe you just have to do it differently. Tune your snare drum differently. Use mallets instead of sticks. All that is a universe of possibilities that you can use besides the ‘what’.”